There is a need to periodically replace railroad track ties in order to maintain the railroad tracks in safe operating condition. In the past, tie replacement has been accomplished by a multiplicity of separate pieces of equipment to perform such tasks as removing spikes from the ties to facilitate removing the old tie, subsequently collecting the old tie, delivering new ties, positioning the new ties under the existing track and various other machines for the different aspects of constructing a railroad track.
Attempts have been made to perform the necessary operations of tie replacement with an integrated single assembly of equipment, which can be moved on the existing railroad track as a unit. However, there is still a need for an integrated single assembly of equipment that is operable to replace railroad ties while moving on the existing railroad track as a unit.